Found project: Santa Maria del Popolo

“In the ceremonial entrances of the sixteenth century, on the other hand, it was the Porta del Popolo that generally served as the privileged threshold into the city. Returning popes also used this route, as in the well-documented case of Julius II, whose devotions at the shrine of S. Maria del Popolo, adjacent to the gate, doubtless formed part of the ceremony. Julius’s reverence for the Madonna del Popolo was given conspicuous physical expression in the transformation of the church into a mausoleum for his kin and court and a showpiece of new architectural and decorative ideas, including the deployment of a range of triumphal motifs.”